SpeedX 3D Review: Testing Your Reaction Time

SpeedX 3D Review: Testing Your Reaction Time

SpeedX 3D
Nintendo 3DS eShop
$3.99
Tunnel Racer

SpeedX 3D is a tunnel racer available on the Nintendo 3DS eShop for $3.99. SpeedX 3D brings more arcade goodness to the eShop with four gameplay modes that include stages, endless, survival and zones. These modes will test your skills and put your reaction time to the test with four very enjoyable difficulty levels which include one totally insane difficulty level. Now you can start out on easy, but fairly quickly you’ll want to move to a higher difficulty level for a better challenge. The higher the level, the faster you will travel creating the higher difficulty and less time to react. It’s very enjoyable though and as you play each stage you’ll be able to set high scores and challenge yourself each time you play. Unfortunately the game doesn’t support online leaderboards which is a big no-no. Also, the music isn’t the greatest and gets old fairly quickly…to the point of where you want to throw on your headphones and listen to something else as you play.

The gameplay is very simple in this arcade runner – you react to what’s in front of you. You’ll be avoiding blocks to keep pushing onward in the level. Eventually, the further you get the more complicated that becomes as you’ll be dealing with more blocks and even moving blocks. As you progress you’ll cross lines that do a number of things such as making it difficult to see upcoming blocks, causing your first-person view to slide left and right, and there are other features that help change up the gameplay and keep it interesting. There are other features as well depending on the game type you play. For example, when you play you only have so much fuel before you crash and you need to drive over a certain strip on the pathway to be able to refuel. Another one is collecting shields by driving over that same strip which allows you to bust through one of the blocks in case you mess up.

SpeedX 3D – Official Trailer

Visually the game looks very nice in 3D, however, I can’t play it long on full 3D without it bothering my eyes and there are not many games that do that to me. I ended up playing most of it without the 3D turned on, but those are my eyes and yours may react different. You will be able to adjust the slider pretty well and hopefully that will improve your experience. It was still certainly fun to play in 3D for a little while at least. One other issue I had, that is no fault of the game, was that when you play with the 3D on you will need to make sure you look straight on to the 3DS screen. What do I mean by that? Well, you know that common habit that most gamers have when they are trying to avoid objects by tilting their head along with the turns? Yeah – that doesn’t work well with the 3D on and in a game that requires quick reaction time, you will be tilting your head, body and 3DS to try and avoid objects. Which brings up one last point, the game does use the motion sensor, so you may play with that option instead of the circle pad and it does handle very well.

There is plenty to keep it interesting and fun, but for how long will become the issue. If you are someone who likes to go after your own scores, then certainly this is a game you’ll be happy to pick up and try to go further for a higher score. If you need that online competition in order to keep playing and go for high scores, then unfortunately you are out of luck. It’s still a fun game for the novice and hardcore players. I love the challenge it provides at high speeds and how it tests my reaction time and it’s worthy of the $3.99 that it costs to download. If it looks like your type of game – go for it!

Score: 6/10